Community Sharpening Journal

[vivi]

SPY27 - It will push cut through paper and pop hairs with little movement on my hand. I think that is a testament to SPY27. I always slice some paper to check sharpness, but not sure I have ever had a knife push cut through paper.

When I ran polished edges I'd test my edges by push cutting receipts. Had a roll of receipt paper in my sharpening toolbox for that reason.

Less applicable for my 200 grit edges. But those still slice a receipt just fine.

Same, i stop at 320 or 400 now and it slices receipt paper nicely. Just doesn't push cut it ! (You certainly could make this kind of grit push cut, but i'm not there yet)


I'm going to try to create a more pronounced burr next time I sharpen... Once I have any burr that is present all the way, I switch.

when I'm doing the last few strokes when sharpening a knife, I stop and feel for any bur on both sides between each pass. sometimes it feels like i hit the apex cleanly and it turns out my eyes couldn't see what my thumbs could detect. minimizing the burr is key to getting a sharp edge.

[Ramonade]

I do this gradually too, but Sometimes i think that I might "imagine" the burr. I can't really be sure of what i'm seeing through the magnifying glass even if I can feel it with my nail !

[JSumm]

SPY27 - It will push cut through paper and pop hairs with little movement on my hand. I think that is a testament to SPY27. I always slice some paper to check sharpness, but not sure I have ever had a knife push cut through paper.

When I ran polished edges I'd test my edges by push cutting receipts. Had a roll of receipt paper in my sharpening toolbox for that reason.

Less applicable for my 200 grit edges. But those still slice a receipt just fine.

Same, i stop at 320 or 400 now and it slices receipt paper nicely. Just doesn't push cut it ! (You certainly could make this kind of grit push cut, but i'm not there yet)


I'm going to try to create a more pronounced burr next time I sharpen... Once I have any burr that is present all the way, I switch.

when I'm doing the last few strokes when sharpening a knife, I stop and feel for any bur on both sides between each pass. sometimes it feels like i hit the apex cleanly and it turns out my eyes couldn't see what my thumbs could detect. minimizing the burr is key to getting a sharp edge.

That is a great point. I can often feel a burr, but cannot see it with the Loupe. The Loupe has really helped with ensuring I'm getting the right angle. Light reflection and the old thumb seem to be the better burr detectors.

[ThomC]

I had a rather unpleasant experience with the Rex 45 Chief this afternoon.

Considering the rain and humidity of the next 4+ months, I decided to force a patina on it.
Same as M4, a 1-hour soak in a mix of white and apple cider vinegar did the trick. Nice cloudy finish, looks almost sand-blasted.
Put the knife back together, and went for a fresh edge.

To my dismay, it showed numerous micro-chips DURING the sharpening that wouldn't go away until I'd removed about (maybe) half of a tenth of a millimeter of steel.
This is the first time I've seen that. My Rex 45 Shaman was a breeze, same as the M4 Millie.
It took a very good edge in the end, but I wasn't expecting it to take so long.

[Steeltoez83]

https://streamlala.com/ggy1z

Put a quick edge on some s110v. Stone used was a silicon carbide king neo stone.

[Ramonade]

Just receive and tested the 0.5 micron diamond spray called "DiaSpray". It's crazy good for stropping !

Until now, I only used green compound or russian diamond pastes. The "basic" aluminium oxyde green compound always gave the best results with my knives. The diamond pastes fom Hapstone were correct but really not that easy to use.

I just have put all my users throught a new strop with Diaspray. All of them but one came back to shaving sharp, even some with better sharpness than initially (edge wasn't cleaned properly I guess, micro burrs).

My S90V manly peak and Native 5 are dangerous now. S30V Para 3 with high polish edge came back to has good as freshly sharpened.

Only knife that didn't come back is the Chaparral LW in CTS-XHP. It was ok before and it's ok now, no visible change. It was still riding it's factory edge, stropped for 6 months so I guess it became to go dull recently.

Any people using diamond emulsion / diamond sprays ? Always had trouble to procure some, but Knives and tools finally had Diaspray in stock.

[FK]

I have used diamond sprays and pastes for 30+ years. I had a friend who was into engraving and he used diamond sprays on low speed powered ceramic disk to finish sharpen his gravers. We experimented with our knives on leather disks and wooden backed strops using the diamond sprays.

Sharpen to nice crisp apex on stones,,, when you feel the edge performance decline,,, a quick strop with diamonds will restore the apex very efficiently. I like 3 micron for restoring EDC and will use 1.0 - 0.5 micron for ultra fine finishes. Another common technique is to finish the apex at 300 or 600 grit and then a quick strop with 3 micron,,,, benefit is coarse edge for slippery/tough materials with partially refined finish for smoother draw cuts.
Do not believe the comments that a strop will not remove steel, if you continue stropping with 3 micron the edge will become very polished and ultra smooth. The black swarf on the strop is steel particles.

Regards,
FK

[JSumm]

Man, I think I am missing out on diamond spray or paste. I am using cheap crayon compound for stropping. May need to upgrade to the 3 micron diamond.

[Wandering_About]

Once you go with diamonds for stropping (especially on steels with decent amounts of vanadium) you'll never go back to the standard compounds. So much better for high wear resistance steels.

[kennethsime]

The more I use my Sharpmaker, the more I appreciate it. When it works, it works REALS good, and REALS quick.



Touched up the new Cruwear Shark and the Zwear Shaman yesterday. Both are sharp, shaving LL Bean catalogue sheets into ribbons, but the Shaman came back a lot quicker and easier. 5 minutes well spent.

[vivi]

Man, I think I am missing out on diamond spray or paste. I am using cheap crayon compound for stropping. May need to upgrade to the 3 micron diamond.

gritomatic sells tubes of diamond paste for $1-3, no excuses!

[JSumm]

Man, I think I am missing out on diamond spray or paste. I am using cheap crayon compound for stropping. May need to upgrade to the 3 micron diamond.

gritomatic sells tubes of diamond paste for $1-3, no excuses!

Done. Ordered.

[vivi]

Nice. Once you try it out you'll never go back to the old school compounds. Much more effective.

[Steeltoez83]

Crucarta pm2 sharpened on a 400 grit pride abrasive waterstone. My bess test results were around 215 grams of force. I was able to pushcut newspaper but it was not consistent.

[Evil D]

Man, I think I am missing out on diamond spray or paste. I am using cheap crayon compound for stropping. May need to upgrade to the 3 micron diamond.

I'm probably doing something wrong but I spent a bunch of money on a whole range of diamond pastes years ago and was never impressed. I've been using red buffing rouge ever since.

[TkoK83Spy]

Man, I think I am missing out on diamond spray or paste. I am using cheap crayon compound for stropping. May need to upgrade to the 3 micron diamond.

I'm probably doing something wrong but I spent a bunch of money on a whole range of diamond pastes years ago and was never impressed. I've been using red buffing rouge ever since.

Stropping in general is a mystery to me. I have no idea if I have enough compound loaded on mine, but I know it NEVER looks all dark and gross like some blocks I see. Could be I don't strop enough, or don't use enough?? Sometimes it seems to work as a nice finishing touch, sometimes I don't notice a difference or it's less sharp than it was off the diamonds or ceramics.

[vivi]

I've experimented a lot with strops, and here's my philosphy:

- If your knife can't shave, don't strop, use stones

- If you can detect a burr, don't strop, use stones

- If you have a clean apex that shaves and you're ready to strop, never strop more than 3-4 times per side. I typically only go one to two alternating strokes per side.

- How much compound is enough? I dunno, I put on a fresh apllication every time I strop though.

- I never, ever use multiple grits when I strop. I always pick one. Usually 40 micron, which sounds absurd until you try it and see the results yourself. I also have 7 micron and 1 micron for the rare times I apply a high polish edge.

- Edge leading strokes on stones, edge trailing strokes on strops.

- Did you dull your knife a little bit? Leave it alone. Use it until it stops shaving then hit up the stones. I don't use strops for in between touch-ups because I feel the edge it gives is inferior to the edge I get off using a stone.

- Use the lightest pressure you can.

- Use the same angle you finished with on the stones.

- Do you notice a lot more compound being scraped off one side vs the other? You have a burr you didn't see and you need to immediately stop stropping and clean up your apex on the stones. this is my favorite use for strops, burr detection

This is what has worked for me, YMMV.

[vivi]

260 grit edge, no microbevel.



it took me a while to develop the self control to not want to sharpen it once it lost shaving ability. It will cut well for weeks past that point.

[TkoK83Spy]

I wish I could figure out how to get my tips to look that even when free handing. I can get the entire bevel nice and even, just that very tip gives me a hard time, particularly on the clip side when pulling towards myself.

[vivi]

I wish I could figure out how to get my tips to look that even when free handing. I can get the entire bevel nice and even, just that very tip gives me a hard time, particularly on the clip side when pulling towards myself.

that has always been the toughest part for me. if i look at old pictures of my knives the tips were usually ground thicker on mine than the rest of the knife. especially when reprofiling, I had a habit of stopping a little early in my stroke for fear of rounding the tip.

only took me about a decade to get it even